Juice Fasting is not a diet.

I had a coworker forward me a New York Times article today on Juice Fasting. The reporter in the article went on a 3 day juice fast. She talked about the shock her body went through so on. As you read it turns out she didn't like her green juice so she pretty much drank pineapple juice and cashew milk for her fast. The article was cute and funny and probably made a lot of people who have tried fasting laugh and she did say she might give it another try in the future. However and here is the rant... It is disturbing how many people seem to be labeling juice fasting as a "diet fad" juice fasting is a cleansing program - not a diet to lose weight and like anything (check out the movie Super Size me and see what horrible things can happened to the human body when you try to live on McDonalds food for 30 days) can be dangerous if you don't follow the rules and put the correct combination of nutrients into your body daily - but seriously for 3 days how much damage is pineapple and cashew juice going to do if you are a fairly healthy person already? Is it any worse than going on a 3 day fast food bender? I hardly think so. Perhaps - what these people are experiencing when they come off of a SAD diet directly into a juicing program is detox. Since cleaning up my diet and eating high raw vegan diet - I experience very little to no discomfort at all when I fast... It centres me, it strengthens my immune system - but most of all it makes me truly grateful for my food.

I'm reposting "Juice Feasting Basics" for anyone is interested in how to Juice fast in a healthy way...

Friday, May 01, 2009 Juice Feasting the Basics
I've had a few people ask me what the "basic rules" of juice feasting are - as I understand them they are as follows...

• Drink a minimum of 4 quarts of fresh, raw (organic if possible) vegetable and fruit juice daily - that is12-20 pounds of fresh fruit and veg a day.
• 2lbs of green leafy vegetables and one head of celery daily (this is part of the 4 quarts not in addition to). Celery is important because it is very hydrating and alkalyzing. It is full of organic sodium and minerals.
• The idea is to re-mineralize, and alkalyze the leafy greens will help you do this (that is why it is important to consume more greens than fruit). Leafy greens will also supply you with protein.
• Some of the supplements suggested are Vitamineral Green, spirulina/chlorella, bee pollen granules, and 1-2 Tablespoons of high-Omega-3 content oils, I've talked with quite a few feasters who feel these are a great compliment to juice feasting but, not absolutely necessary. - I take them.
• As I've mentioned before daily enemas are suggested to help your body eliminate wastes more efficiently.
• Why not green smoothies? What about fiber? This is what David Rain has to say on the subject "Normaly, fiber is great for moving things through the intestinal tract and colon and an appropriate pace, but when the body must separate out juice from fiber, there is an energy expenditure there that is significant. One of our main aims in the Juice Feast is to reduce this burden as much as possible – give the body a vacation from solid food – so that the saved energy can be transferred to cleansing processes.
  
  The reason that fasting works is that you are giving your body physiological rest from digesting food. This rest allows the body to go about the process of "housecleaning" with the energy saved from the usual act of digestion. Juice Feasting works with the same principle. When you remove the fiber from your produce and drink plant juices, you give the body physiological rest. This principle is also known as "Physiological Compensation." My colleague John Rose writes about Herbert Shelton's explanation of this principle:
  
  Physiological Compensation - "Energy saved in one department may be expended in another." When we give our bodies a "solid food vacation" by only drinking freshly made fruit and vegetable juices, the energy that would have been used to convert the solid food into liquid is then redirected or re-channeled to the elimination cycle. Even though no solid food is going in, there will be massive amounts of uneliminated waste matter coming out of our intestines. Once our colon, which is our major channel of elimination, begins to free itself from its toxic load, then every cell in our bodies will start dumping out its accumulated waste matter into our system to be eliminated."

By drinking only juice, the body gets a break from digesting food. This energy can then be used instead to cleanse the body of old matter and ultimately rebuilt itself. David Rain, believes that most people need 92 days to fully cleanse, and overcome any health challenges. He believes the body goes back in time about 120 days for each day you are on the feast.